Dumfriesshire MP David Mundell has urged greater local recognition for local literary legend Thomas Carlyle after visiting the Victorian man of letters’ London home.
Mr Mundell, MP for Carlyle’s birthplace and childhood home Ecclefechan, paid a visit to the National Trust-owned property in London’s Chelsea last week.
Commenting after the visit Mr Mundell said: “It was a great pleasure to visit the home Thomas and Jane Carlyle made in London, which is wonderfully preserved. There is strong local interest in Carlyle, with the excellent Arched House museum in Ecclefechan and Carlyle artefacts at other local museums but I think we should make more of the connection locally.
“Visiting his London house really underlines how influential a figure he was in the nineteenth century – he was at the heart of British intellectual life and his books were read and admired right around the world.
“The Thomas Carlyle House would make an excellent visit for anyone from Dumfriesshire who visits London. Chelsea is now one of the most well-heeled areas in London, but in Carlyle’s time it was an unfashionable outskirt: he paid £30 per annum rent all the time he lived there, which wouldn’t go very far today!”